1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot apparatus for performing input/output of information from/to a user, an information processing system including the robot apparatus, and a control method for the robot apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, there is known a robot apparatus that moves autonomously in a room of a general house to provide a user with various sorts of information or receive input of various types of information from the user. As examples of the robot apparatus, JP 3091135 B2 and JP 2000-210476 A disclose techniques in which the robot apparatus operates in association with an image displayed on a display screen of a display device such as a home-use television set by being connected to an information processing device such as a home-use game machine. According to such techniques described above, a method of, for example, displaying a game image on a screen and at the same time causing a robot apparatus to execute movements relating to the game allows input/output of information from/to a user by a variety of means.
The above-mentioned techniques of the conventional examples may cause such a problem that if the robot apparatus and the screen of the display device are located in different directions when viewed from the user, the user needs to frequently change the orientation of their face to view an image displayed on the screen at one time and to receive information provided by the robot apparatus or input information to the robot apparatus at another time. In order to solve such a problem, the user must move to another position or shift the location where the robot apparatus is placed, which may place a burden on the user.